Monday, February 8, 2010

Last, but not least...the cute kids!

PRAISE THE LORD!!! WE HAVE INTERNET AGAIN!!!

Chad worked long and hard yesterday to get our own Internet set up. So now I can get back to my blogging...I missed it. It keeps me accountable for my eating and working out habits.

Here is the recap from our weekend.

Friday, Chad and I went out with my parents to celebrate my dad's birthday. Dad chose Bar Abilene in Uptown. We had been there before and oddly enough, that's where my dad wanted to go. We learned that they got a few new chefs who want to "cook with real food and make it good." (According to the server). We started out with the 7-layer dip...lettuce, black beans, tomatoes, sour cream, corn relish, avocado, jalapenos, and tortilla chips. I didn't take a picture...I'm still not so comfortable with photographing food in public. It went really fast between 4 people!!

I ordered the steak fajitas, mom ordered the fish tacos, Chad ordered the pork tacos and my dad followed my lead and ordered the steak fajitas as well. I didn't try my mom or Chad's meals because mine was SOOOO good!! I also had an Omega-rita and a glass of Pinot Grigio. The Omega-rita was an Anti-oxidant berry madness: blueberries, raspberries and strawberries, with Sauza Blanca. SO YUMMY!!
My cute parents...

Chad and I planned to go to my cousin Brian's for the Super Bowl. Of course, I wanted to bring something to share. I researched for a few days and chose 4 recipes to ponder over. Unfortunately, I could not choose just one or even just 2. I decided to make ALL FOUR!!! Crazy, I know.

I started with the Beanis Dip from Iowagirleats.com. It was a fresh, natural salsa. You would have to ask her why it is called Beanis Dip...?

Beanis Dip
Ingredients:

Like my new placemats? $1.29 each at Target..
* 1 green bell pepper
* 3 vine ripened tomatoes
*1/2 large red onion
*1 jalapeno pepper
*1 clove fresh garlic
*1 bunch cilantro
*1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
*1 can corn, drained
*1 tsp cumin
*Salt and pepper
*1 small bottle Zesty Italian salad dressing

Directions:
1. Chop up ingredients fro bell pepper to cilantro and place in a large bowl.
QUESTION: I don't cook with tomatoes much (or at all) and I was unsure of how to chop these up. I called Chad to ask whether I keep the juicy/seedy parts of the tomato or if I cut them out and place them aside. He said to include them...I decided to put them aside and cut around them...WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON THIS???
2. Add drained and rinsed black beans, drained corn, cumin and Salt and Pepper.
3. Add three quarters of the small bottle of Zesty Italian Dressing.
4. Mix well and add more dressing if needed.
5. Serve with chips.
I LOVE this recipe!!!
This is all I need to say: I had this with chips for lunch today, and I had it for dinner. It is TO DIE FOR!!! So fresh and satisfying.

My second recipe was Peanut Butter Blondies-gluten free! I found these on livelaugheat.com. Allie got them from Elanaspantry.com. They looked really good so I had to try them. I made a few minor adjustments...

Gluten Free Almond Butter Blondies
1 (16) ounce jar creamy roasted almond butter (I used natural Peanut Butter)
1 cup agave nectar
2 eggs
½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup dark chocolate 73% (I used milk chocolate chips for 1/2 and Peanut Butter/Chocolate chips for the other 1/2)

  1. In a large bowl, with a hand blender, mix almond butter until creamy
  2. Mix in agave and eggs
  3. Add salt and baking soda
  4. Mix well with hand blender until all ingredients are thoroughly combined
  5. Mix half of the chocolate into the batter
  6. Pour batter into a well greased 9 x 13 inch pyrex baking dish
  7. Scatter the other half of the chocolate on top of the batter
  8. Bake at 325° for 35 minutes
These looked great, but when I took them out of the oven, a few minutes later, they caved in.
These are great...a little gooey but that is attributed to the gooey natural peanut butter.

By this time, I was running out of time to finish the recipes, shower and get to my cousins' in time for the game.

My last recipe: Pepperoni Cheese Puffs (I also got these from Iowagirleats.com. She has great, healthy recipes!!)

Ingredients:
* 1 1/4 c. water
* 1/3 c. shortening
* 1 1/2 c. flour
* 4 eggs
*3/4 c. Pepperoni (Finely chopped)
*3/4 c. of Pecorino Romano or Parmesan cheese (finely shredded)
* 2 T. snipped Parsley
* 1/8 t. garlic powder
* 1/8 t. pepper
* garlic salt (to taste)

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Grease 2 baking sheets. (I used a pizza stone)
3. In large saucepan, combine the water and the shortening and bring to a boil.
4. Add flour to boiling water, stirring vigorously. Stir while you are cooking until the mixture starts to form a ball.
5. Remove balled mixture from the heat and let it cool for 10 minutes. Add the eggs, one ata time. Using a wooden spoon, beat each egg into the mixture very well. Stir in pepperoni, cheese, parsley, garlic powder and pepper.
6. Drop pepperoni dough by using a rounded teaspoon about 2 inches apart onto prepared baking sheets.
7. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until they are a beautiful golden brown. Transfer them to a wire rack and serve warm.
8. Serve with spaghetti sauce.

I packed everything up (2 serving platters, 2 serving bowls, 2 bags of chips, 1 ramekin for spaghetti sauce, 1 jar spaghetti sauce, bottle of wine, 2 LaCroix waters) and headed to my cousins'.

They were serving Dog Food Dip (a coveted Preiner family recipe...sorry no recipe), meatballs and burgers. It was quite a spread!!



The husband and my cousin, Brian...trying to pay attention to football and commercials while the girls caught up!

Brian attacking my other cousin...you would think we were still 10 years old :)

Self-portrait

And this is what I woke up to this morning...Love the snow!!!

Just a quick picture to show you one of my Reading groups...this is one of my kindergarten groups. Aren't they adobable??? Writing their D's...

Hopefully, I can keep up blogging again, now that we have our own Internet. I didn't get to the gym tonight because of the roads...hopefully I can go tomorrow.

Enjoy the beautiful weather!!!

1 comment:

Andi Hays said...

I cut out most of the juicy tomato part, too. I don't really care for the "slimy" texture.

I make a similar dip with less ingredients. Beans, corn, tomato and cilantro.